mai ☾

“No one looks him in the face now, it's as if his grief frightens them. What are they afraid of? That one day they'll have to endure pain like this? Or that they never will, that they're incapable of it, because grief's only ever as deep as the love it's replaced.”
― Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls

“Grief's only ever as deep as the love it's replaced.”
― Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls

“Someone once said to me: You never mention his looks. And it's true, I don't, I find it difficult. At that time, he was probably the most beautiful man alive, as he was certainly the most violent, but that's the problem. How do you separate a tiger's beauty from its ferocity? Or a cheetah's elegance from the speed of the attack? Achilles was like that- the beauty and the terror were two sides of a single coin.”
― Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls

“Nothing happened. Well, of course nothing happened! Isn't nothing what generally happens when you pray to the gods?”
― Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls